


Colorfully Illuminate (Feelings)

by herbivorenthusiast



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Maybe a bit Angst, Mild Language, The Gifted AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-02 19:40:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17269877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herbivorenthusiast/pseuds/herbivorenthusiast
Summary: Jihoon wants to know why he sees a color in anyone but Woojin.





	1. Purple

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the gifted series. I change some things so not everything fits the series.

 

At the end of first semester, 101 students from freshman batch are required to take a test and the result will determine which class they will be placed. Almost all students are determined to get accepted to the special class: Gifted class.

Jihoon is one of them. He tries his best to get accepted by studying hard ever since he got accepted to the school. Study isn’t really his forte. Despite his hardwork and seriousness, Jihoon realizes he’s only good at doing something he likes and study happens to be something he dislikes.

(Jihoon almost gives up.)

That’s why when the day comes, Jihoon is found staring at the board. There are ten students who get accepted to the gifted class starting from next semester. He’s confused and overjoyed at the same time. Jihoon doesn’t understand why he gets to be a part of elite while his other friend like Donghan—the head of student council from his batch or Samuel, the foreign student who aces every studies and also extracurricular activities, are failed to do so. He scans the list and sees familiar names like Daniel, his gaming friend and also Jinyoung, a quiet friend who accompanies him since day one, and also Kuanlin, the happy-go-lucky boy who happens to like him a lot.

He also spots Park Woojin’s name and that’s the moment when he starts feeling both relieved and panic.

 

 

*

“Ah, we’re classmate again.”

Jihoon is busy arranging his pens on the table when Woojin suddenly show up in front of him and make those pens fall to the floor. Jihoon lets out a nervous laugh when Woojin chortles upon seeing his clumsiness.

Jihoon holds his breathe when Woojin follows him to pick up his pens.

“You still bring a lot of pens.”

“What am I going to do? I lose a lot of pens in daily basis,” Jihoon huffs, throwing an annoyed look at Kuanlin who is busy chatting with a boy he doesn’t know the name yet. “Kuanlin never brings his own pen and always borrow mine but never remember to return it.”

Woojin laughs and Jihoon loves the sound of it. Woojin’s laughter sends a pleasant feeling to him. That’s why when he glances at the big mirror nearby, he looks at the reflection of himself and sees the light purple is manifested from him—glowing beautifully before fading once Jihoon blinks.

“Jihoon?”

Jihoon snaps from his thought. He laughs and quickly asks about their class and randomly comments about everything that catches his attention to prevent Woojin asking why he’s out of it. Luckily, Woojin doesn’t mind it and continues talking. Jihoon is always afraid if anyone ever finds out about his secret.

Jihoon can see what people can’t see. When Jihoon sees someone and focuses on what he sees, he can see different color manifests from a person according to what they feel at that moment. First time Jihoon realized he could do such a thing when he saw green in his brother after his parents bought Jihoon a robot toy but not his brother. And then he saw dark purple when he cried because his brother hit him. Later he learnt that every color had different meaning. Green for jealousy, dark purple for fear, and more colors he learns while he interacts with people.

No one knows except himself because Jihoon is afraid people will find him weird and start alienating him. He will never tell anyone—not even his family or Woojin who has been his good friend since they’re in middle school.

He thought so.

Until the homeroom teacher comes and greets them gleefully. Their homeroom teacher is Yoon Jisung, one of the best teacher in their school. The man is really kind and patient, always has a way to deal with different type of student. Rumor has it there is no student he can’t handle. The most problematic student will be tamed once they face the almighty Yoon Jisung.

(Jihoon doesn’t really buy it though.)

Ten of them are asked to briefly introduce themselves. Starting from Daniel, who beams his bright smile which shows his two bunny teeth, makes him looks cuter than ever.

The introduction happens smoothly. Nothing much, just their name, former class, and wishes for their class.

Until the homeroom teacher says something that makes all of them surprised.

“There is one last question I’d like to ask to each of you,” his expression turns into a serious one. “before that, please keep it in your mind.”

He stares at each of them.

“Everything in this class, keep it secret. This is the main rules.”

It’s a bizarre rule, Jihoon thinks. When he glances at the others, he sees different emotion. Some of them are surprised, some are excited, and Jihoon still can’t decipher a range of colors that manifested from Woojin. While the other only manifest one color only, Woojin always shows more.

“Now tell me,” Jihoon tries to focus again when he hears his homeroom starts talking again. “What makes you special?”

Jihoon never thinks he’s special. His score in academic is average, albeit he’s gifted with acting skill which makes him into theatrical production especially being an actor. But Jihoon isn’t sure if that’s what their homeroom teacher wants to hear. He believes it’s more than just a interest or skill.

“And what makes you special, Sir?”

Jihoon turns around to see a boy with light hair (he wonders how the boy doesn’t get punished for having a purple hair) raises his hand and asks the question as if it’s not impolite. Jihoon will never dare to talk back at teacher, let alone doing someing like he just did.

“Daehwi, am I right?” Surprisingly, their teacher doesn’t get mad. He still has that smile and kind vibe emits from him. Jihoon blinks, tries to focus on the teacher to read the underlying emotion but he finds nothing but one thing: amused.

“Mmm... why don’t you tell me first and I’m gonna tell you after that?”

“How did he manage to escape the ursula?” Woojin who sits beside Jihoon whispers, questionning the same thing as Jihoon: Daehwi’s hair and his way to escape their scary teacher they call Ursula.

“I have no idea, Woojin.” Jihoon replies once he believes the teacher doesn’t look at them. “Maybe he has a connection?”

“Or maybe Park Woojin and Park Jihoon wants to share something with us, first?”

 _Oh_ _shit_.

They eventually come to the front, standing side by side awkwardly as the rest of class staring at the duo. Jihoon regrets his decision to glance at Jinyoung because now the younger is busy wiggling his brows at Jihoon with annoying smile in his lips.

(Jihoon makes a mental note to kick him later.)

“I—don’t know why I can consider myself as a special person, Sir.” Jihoon scratches his head and smiles bashfully at the teacher. He expects the teacher to look disappoint but much to his surprise, the teacher looks understanding. He blinks one, focusing on the feeling and it’s still the same color.

“If you don’t know what makes you special, maybe you want to share something you always hide from people around you?”

This time, he understands what is behind the question. What makes him so special is what he desperately wants to hide from everyone. The thing is his specialty can’t be categorized as specialty in normal way. Rather than special, he believes people will see him as a bizarre person instead.

“I don’t have anything like that, Sir.”

“Liar.” Jihoon is surprised when the purple-haired boy opens his mouth again. Jihoon is nervous. He secretly glances at Woojin and blinks, trying to see what’s his reaction when Jihoon is accused (well, he is indeed lying but—) by the weird boy.

Jihoon sighs. Despite his attempt to see the color in Woojin, different colors are manifested there. From pink, blue, yellow, and darker color changes per second—making Jihoon a bit dizzy. He closes his eyes and massages his temple to ease the throbbing pain between his eyes.

“I might have a secret I want to share.”

Jihoon turns to see Woojin. The latter gives him a nod while his hand pats Jihoon’s back assuringly, trying to tell him that he’s okay coming out for the sake of Jihoon. Jihoon is really touched by that. Knowing really well how much he hates someone to dig into his inner thought and feeling, Woojin helps him by averting people’s attention to him instead.

Jihoon wants to hug him so much.

“Boo. You are saving him.” The purple-haired boy clicks his tongue, unamused because his attempt to disturb Jihoon’s peace just failed miserably. “But you are not lying. You really want to share something. Go on.”

 _What’s_ _with_ _this_ _boy_ _and_ _telling_ _people_ _like_ _that_?

Woojin is hesited because of the boy. Jihoon can sense he is taken aback by his gesture—not because he suddenly has the ability to decipher Woojin’s feeling. His lack of action reduces the patience limit the purple boy has and makes him walks confidently to the front. He ignores both Jihoon and Woojin and waves his hand to the classmate.

“Hello, guys! I am Daehwi! But I don’t mind if you guys call me David, too, since it’s also my name,” contrary to his annoying act before, the way he talks and interacts with the other gives Jihoon an impression that the purple boy is kinda..., nice.

“I am so special because I can detect whether you lie or not! Yes! I’m a living lie detector. Please don’t try to fool me!” His eyes turn into crescent moon and his mouth forms a cute smile. “That’s why I know the pretty boy here is lying and his knight in shining armor isn’t! Thank you for letting me speak! Please continue~”

None of them budge until the teacher claps and tell them to clap as well in order to appreciate Daehwi’s bravery (despite Jihoon is conviced it’s rude interuption instead of bravery but yeah).

The teacher asks both of them to continue. Woojin nods and coughs before sharing his specialty.

“I can imitate or copy a skill by watching or studying,” Woojin flashes a bashful smile, looking uncomfortable talking about that. “as long as it can be studied, I can do that.”

Jihoon always wonders why Woojin is really smart. Woojin is in charge of teaching Jihoon almost everything since they know each other, to the extent Jihoon has once questioned if Woojin is human or not. The boy is always perfect, half of the reason why jihoon gradually develops crush on him.

(Now Jihoon knows why.)

When it is Jihoon’s turn, Woojin mouths him a cheering words while gives him two thumbs up. Woojin always manage to cheer him up and make him comfortable in any situation. This, included.

“I’m not sure if it’s counted,” Jihoon starts carefully, blinks several times to check on people’s feelings before continuing his words, “I can sense people’s feelings.”

He looks at his classmates and some of them look confused. The david boy frowns, Jihoon guesses maybe it’s because he’s vaguely lying so the outcome is not really clear.

“I.. know you are nervous,” he points at Jinyoung who is surprised because he suddenly becomes the center of attention. “Not sure what are you afraid of. Your fear is crystal clear to me.” He continues while pointing at another boy.

He continues explainning a bit more before asking the teacher if he can go back to his seat. Once he gets an okay, he rushes to his seat and sighs deeply. For the very first time, he opens up about his deepest secret to people whom he barely knows. Jihoon doesn’t know why but somehow he feels lighter when he shares his secret.

“Hoonie?”

Jihoon turns to see Woojin.

“You are not weird.” He whispers. “Don’t worry.”

And that’s the first genuine smile Jihoon flashes since he enters the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Gray

*

 

Ever since he saw his name on the board, Jihoon’s life becomes challenging.

 

Aside from the keep-it-secret rule, the other rules are pretty much same with general rule. The great thing about being in gifted program is there are several rules that can be bent for them. For example, their appearance won’t be matter anymore. Daehwi can keep his purple hair. Daniel is allowed to bring cats in the class because it helps to develop his potential as someone who can control the animal. Jinyoung also gets a special seat with larger table in the class—a high tech computer set is his company to develop his potential as a technopath. Jihoon is happy when he knows school will provide Kuanlin a box of pen daily instead of him. Now he knows why Kuanlin always loses pen because that’s his potential: an ability to make an object or human disappear. His ability is classified as dangerous for now because he can make it disappear but still has no idea how to bring it back. That’s why school still watch over him and stricly ban his potential to be used outside the classroom.

 

The good thing about being in gifted program is they are not required to study like the other student in regular class. Rather than dealing with general subject, their lesson is more focused on how to develop their potential at its best and suppress the side-effect of using it. Good thing and bad thing always come in pair. Jihoon’s eyes become blurry if he uses his potential often. Kuanlin gets nosebleed after losing something bigger than his palm. Jinyoung becomes moody if he spends time too much in front of his laptop. He is not sure about Daniel and Woojin because those two look perfectly fine even after using their potential for hours.

 

Jihoon envies them.

 

Speaking of envy, their special rules make the regular students envy as well. Jihoon sees green everytime they eat in the cafetaria—special meal in special table for ten gifted students only—and how they keep talking bad behind them. Jihoon knows, because they accidentally heard it from his own friend one day before he moved out from their shared room to the new dorm.

 

Jihoon pretended he didn’t hear what they said. He accepted the congratulation from both Donghan and Haknyeon while trying his best to ignore the dark green radiate prettily from both of them.

 

(So much for being friends.)

 

The other blessing in disguise for Jihoon since he’s in gifted program is his roommate is now Park Woojin.

 

They chose roommate by choosing a ball from the black box brought by their teacher. Daniel with Seongwoo got ‘1’ ball. Daehwi and Jinyoung got ‘2’, Sungwoon and Kuanlin got ‘3’, Minhyun and Jaehwan got ‘4’, and the duo park got ‘5’. If Jihoon looked at the ball he got with shocking expression and mixed feeling, Jinyoung is exceptionally happy. The younger whispered a congratulation and succesfully earned a kick in his shin, from yours truly.

 

So when it’s the first night in new dorm, Jihoon feels awkward. It’s great to be a roommate with someone you’re familiar with. But contrary to popular belief, despite being friends for year, They never do a sleepover, not even when their houses aren’t that far from each other. Yes, they always play together and their parents take turn to visit when it’s christmas but never, never in the room.

 

“Are you sure you want a bed near the window?” Woojin frowns when he sees Jihoon climbs onto the bed near the window. “It often rains these days.”

 

Jihoon contemplates a bit. All exhausting things happen in him makes him forget important matters like this. For example, his fear for thunder. But rather than laugh at himself for being forgetful, his erratically beating heart shows there is something he focuses on.

 

“Wait, you remember about my fear?”

 

Woojin nods, amused when he sees Jihoon’s expression. “I remember important things.” He gets up from the chair and approach Jihoon. Jihoon stays in his place, eyes fixates on Woojin while internally screams at himself to stay calm.

 

“I’ll sleep here.” He sits on the bed and flashes his signature smile. “Rain and thunder are my favorite.” He looks outside the window distantly, suddenly becomes quiet. Jihoon blinks, trying to see Woojin’s emotion. He gives up once a range of colors show up and he still hasn’t gotten a clue about why he can see only one color in anyone but many in Woojin.

 

Jihoon doesn’t want to interrupt Woojin’s thought so he quietly goes to his bed and says good night after tucking himself in.

 

“Good night, Hoonie.” Woojin turns his head to give him a soft smile before continuing to see outside the window. Jihoon doesn’t know how long because the sound of rain on the rooftop and the warmth radiates in the room despite the air conditioner is on makes him fall asleep easily.

 

 

*

 

Jihoon finds himself getting along well with the rest of gifted students. Daehwi who kinda got on his nerve in the first day now becomes one of the closest to him. The younger turns out to be a nice kid who often acts cute in front of him.

 

The more interesting thing about his class is some of them involve romantically with each other. Jihoon realizes it when he checks some of their interactions and gets light purple until pink from some of them. His friends are no exception. The always moody Jinyoung lately becomes much softer thanks to Daehwi. Jihoon pretends to not notice it despite the urge to tease him is so strong.

 

His relationship(?) with Woojin is getting better. Now he can act natural and doesn’t flinch much when their hands touch. Holding hand from class to dorm or falling asleep while accompanying Woojin to study become normalcy to both of them. The fact that they have known for years make it more easier to understand each other.

 

“Woojin,” Jihoon taps his shoulder to get Woojin’s attention. The latter is wearing headphone, learning how to draw like an expert by watching video. He pauses the video, takes the headphone off and turns to see Jihoon.

 

“Yes?”

 

“You’ve been studying for hours,” Jihoon glances at tissues scattered on the table, blood stains are visible to him. “Take a break first. Eat. Then sleep.”

 

Woojin turns his chair to see the clock and surprised to see how late it is. He realizes he hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast but doesn’t feel hungry at all.

 

“I’m going to the convenience store downstair and buy sandwich then—” Woojin gets up from his chair and stumble because of the dizziness that suddenly comes. Jihoon is quick to help him, holding his waist to prevent him from falling down.

 

“Woojin!”

 

Woojin wants to protest when Jihoon doesn’t allow him to go. He finally surrenders when Jihoon threatens to tie him in the bed if Woojin is still stubborn so he complies.

 

“I’ll try to find something edible that is not sandwhich to you,” he says after tucking Woojin in his bed and put a cold towel on his forehead. “Today’s menu is samgyetang. You don’t like that, right?” Jihoon remembers how much Woojin dislikes samgyetang.

 

“What do you mean I dislike samgyetang?” Woojin’s bemused expression confuses Jihoon. “I love samgyetang.”

 

Jihoon doesn’t push more. He doesn’t question further about sudden change of Woojin’s appetite and leave the room to get the food for Woojin.

 

*

 

When it’s nearing the end of semester, classmeeting is something everyone has been waiting for. Each class will participate and defeat other class in various events—from academic related to extracurricular activities. While the regular class has no problem to participate in 35 events, gifted class has one.

 

There is not enough student to participate.

 

“In conclusion, we are going to die once the classmeeting is over.” Daehwi conclude their meeting by clapping once, expression is unamused. “There are twenty student in one class so it won’t be hard for them to participate. But how about us? We have to participate more than twice and i wonder if we can win.”

 

“We can cheer. Hurray!” Daniel chirps, holds his cat and waves the cute paw around them. “Peter and Rooney are good at cheerleading!”

 

“Daniel,” Minhyun facepalms. “People will get a heart attack if they see that. Beside, you’re participating in b-boy. No rejection.

 

Daniel pouts but doesn’t comment further.

 

“I can participate in all sports,” Sungwoon laughs at unamused Daehwi and ruffles his hair. “You know I’m here for a reason.”

 

“I have no doubt you can defeat all players all by yourself but nope,” Daehwi shakes his head. “You gonna blow our cover.”

 

“I was a captain for basketball team since elementary school,” Kuanlin chimes in. “And I’m not that bad at sports. I can help Sungwoon. But still, we need more people to participate.”

 

“I’m surprised you’re a captain,” Jihoon comments. “How can you play without losing the ball.”

 

Kuanlin throws him a dirty look.

 

“Anyway,” Daehwi tries to focus again. “Seongwoo can participate in photography. Right? Your picture is beyond beautiful.”

 

“Thanks.” Seongwoo grins. “I’ll take a great picture for us. One of the theme is sunrise so I’ll snap the best sunrise picture and win it for us. No one will crazy enough to pull all nighter except me!”

 

Jihoon nods in agreement. Seongwoo has an ability to live without sleeping a wink. That’s how he always has more time than the other and he usually uses that to hunt a great view to be caught in his camera.

 

“I can help,” Woojin volunteers. “I’ll study it first but I still need your help to teach me some skills.” He turns to Sungwoon and bump their fists together.

 

“Yea, we do need more people in basketball and soccer though,” Sungwoon muses. “Seongwoo will get injured because god of ball hates him. Daehwi—“

 

“Just kill me instead. I hate sports.”

 

“Okay, Daehwi wants to be killed so he can’t participate,” Sungwoon continues. “Minhyun, can you touch the ball without using your potential?”

 

“I don’t see or hear associated events on an object through every contact I do, Sungwoon,” Minhyun scoffs. “I’ll do it. I won’t go around and use my potential to save my energy.”

 

“Great.” Sungwoon grins and high five Minhyun. “Jihoon?”

 

“Last time I play soccer with him, he endangered his future offspring.” Woojin breaks into laughter then running away before Jihoon can kick him.

 

“I can’t.” Jihoon flushes, remembering his past when he’s in pain because of the ball. “Anything is fine as long as it’s not soccer.”

 

“Please keep his little friend intact.” Woojin yells from the door and this time, Jihoon chases him around.

 

“Kids.” Jinyoung comments without averting his gaze from his laptop.

 

When they finish filling in their names, Jihoon and Woojin come back with Woojin’s arm drapes around Jihoon’s shoulder. Jihoon looks like a mixture of tired and angry while Woojin grins happily, showing off his victory.

 

“Okay kiddos, there is one more event and we still discuss who’s going to participate.” Minhyun ruffles both of their hair. “The last event in the last day, we need to form a band.”

 

“Aren’t we, except Jaehwan, musically challenged?” Kuanlin looks around doubtfully. “Our face isn’t musician face.”

 

“Our face is great.” Jaehwan wiggles his brow. “Imagine if we form a boygroup and debuting, the world will be very thankful for our presence.”

 

“As long as you don’t sing, they’re grateful.” Minhyun flicks Jaehwan’s forehead. “You don’t want to lull all fans to sleep. There’s no point of performing then.”

 

“Guys, we need to turn it in at—holy shit it’s ten minutes left. Quick! Let’s fill it in!” Daehwi starts panicking when he realizes they only have ten minutes left before the registration closes.

 

“You know I can be anything,” Jaehwan shrugs. As someone with an ability to master every musical instrument (and angelic voice that makes anyone who listens to him fall asleep), Jaehwan is confident with the event. “You guys choose.”

 

“I can play piano.” Jinyoung’s fingers still play on the keyboard, eyes fixate on the screen. “Next.”

 

“I know how to play drum.” Seongwoo follows. “Jaehwan can play guitar I guess?”

 

“Now we only need bassist and vocalist.” Daehwi writes down the name hurriedly. “Quick, quick.”

 

“I’ll learn how to play bass then.” Woojin once again volunteers. “Hoonie can sing.”

 

“Wait, what?” Jihoon chokes on his water because of that. “No!”

 

“Okay, Jihoon sings.” Daehwi ignores his attempt to refuse and write down his name.

 

“Daehwi! I can’t sing!”

 

“Whatever. Teach him how to, Wooj.” Daehwi dismisses anything Jihoon says and leaves to gives their form. They bid each other goodbye then leave to their respective room.

 

When they enter the room, Jihoon blocks Woojin’s way and give him an exasperated look.

 

“What?” Woojin raises his brow. “I’m not lying. Daehwi must sense that. You can sing.”

 

“My voice sounds worse than frog!”

 

“Stop underestimating yourself.” Woojin sounds serious. “You’re better than what you give yourself credit. Why are you being like this?”

 

Jihoon is speechless. He tries to come up with something to respond Woojin’s words but end up giving up when he realizes what Woojin just said isn’t wrong at all.

 

Jihoon and his insecurity.

 

“Forget it,” Jihoon huffs. “and how about you? You still need to practice as a representative of school. And just now, you volunteered to participate in a lot of events. Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”

 

“I need to utilize my potential to reach my goal. I need to prove myself that I’m good enough.” Woojin avert his gaze from Jihoon and for the first time, Jihoon doesn’t see a confident and strong Woojin. The way Woojin talks and looks like he’s in a deep thought makes him looks... broken.

 

“You are perfect, Woojin.” Jihoon carefully pats Woojin’s back. “You have everything people wish to have.”

 

“Not everything.” Woojin suddenly turns to Jihoon and makes an unreadable expression. “I can’t have what I really want to have.”

 

“Is there a limitation in your potential?”

 

Woojin laughs.

 

“There is something I can’t learn even when I have this potential,” his smile looks sad and Jihoon desperately wants to know why. But before he can ask, Woojin continues his word.

 

“I wonder If i deserve what I’m going to have if I get to learn that.” He finishes his sentence and chuckle when he sees Jihoon’s intrigued expression. “Look at this frown. Stop frowning, Jigglypuff.”

 

He bumps his forehead with Jihoon lightly before grabbing his towel and entering their bathroom, leaving Jihoon confused in his place.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying my best to give them potentials that fit them the most. I hope I don’t mess up.


	3. Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for violence near the end.

 

 

*

Preparing for the upcoming classmeeting is exhausting enough for Jihoon. He can’t imagine how exhausting it is for Woojin—who needs to prepare for competition as a representative of their school.

 

It’s been three days since the last time he saw Woojin. The latter comes back when Jihoon’s already in a deep slumber and leaves their room while Jihoon is still asleep. Since there is no class to attend anymore, they can’t meet in the class. Woojin is always somewhere in the school but wherever it is, Jihoon never get to meet him. He knows Woojin doesn’t like to be bothered while he is in serious mode, that’s why even though he wants to check on him, he refrains himself to do so.

 

The fourth day, Jihoon frowns when he sees Woojin’s bed. Since Woojin is always in a rush, he never gets to make his bed properly. That’s why Jihoon is always the one who does it. But when he sees Woojin’s bed, he knows Woojin doesn’t sleep in his bed last night.

 

He recalls their conversation that night, when Woojin told him something vague which Jihoon can’t really understand. There is a goal Woojin wants to achieve but strangely, his potential can’t help him to achieve that. Jihoon tries to think what kind of subject or skill that can’t be learnt. So far, he can’t find one.

 

He’s about to leave the room when he hears the door unlocked. The door swings open and he meets tired Woojin who looks surprised to see him.

 

“Woojin!” Jihoon approaches the latter, helps him to bring some of his stuff (a map full of papers and his violin case) then put it on Woojin’s desk. Woojin usually doesn’t want to be helped but now he lets Jihoon does that without a word.

 

“Hey.” Woojin smiles at him. It’s meek and Jihoon doesn’t need to see through him to know he’s almost in his limit. Jihoon doesn’t ask anything. He quietly grabs a mug, fills it with a hot water and make a hot chocolate for Woojin.

 

He hands the mug to Woojin and watches him drink in silence.

 

“Have you eaten?” Jihoon sounds worried. Woojin always skips meal and the fact that he’s preoccupied with a lot of stuff lately is enough for Jihoon to guess that Woojin must be too busy to eat properly.

 

“Does hot chocolate count?” Woojin lifts the mug and laughs when he sees Jihoon’s expression turns sour. “I ate sandwich.”

 

“Is sandwich the only food you can eat?” Jihoon clicks his tongue, unamused. “That’s not even a proper meal.”

 

“I’m busy, Hoon.” He tries to reason. “Meal prep take longer than sandwich. Beside, i can eat sandwich while study.”

 

Woojin wants to explain more but seeing Jihoon’s sour expression makes him quiet. He whispers a barely audible sorry, takes Jihoon’s hand and plays with his fingers.

 

And it makes Jihoon becomes flustered.

 

Jihoon thinks every touch from Woojin squeezes the air out of his lung. He is out of breath, out of mind, and out of everything. His eyes stay in their intertwined fingers—looking at how Woojin’s hand isn’t soft but the touch feels so delicate. It’s so nice, the way Woojin’s slightly bigger hand wraps his and how the thumb circles the back of Jihoon’s hand.

 

Jihoon doesn’t understand but he doesn’t want to. Not when Woojin pulls him closer and carefully lets him sitting beside him—on his bed. Jihoon fights the urge to hold Woojin’s hand once the latter loosen it and suddenly Jihoon feels empty.

 

(But he can breathe now.)

 

Jihoon wants to ask something. Anything. Everything. He wants to ask the way Woojin treats him lately and how it affects his feeling. Then he realizes, rather than asking about how they act around each other, Jihoon prefers to know the reason behind Woojin’s color. Why he can see a lot of colors like a night view instead of one color so he knows Woojin’s feeling and know how to understand it.

 

Woojin is colorful but not everything colorful is a good thing.

 

“Sleep.” Jihoon croaks, quickly fakes a cough to hide his embarassment. “Nice dream.”

He’s still not used to the intimacy and too afraid to ask what are they.

 

“All my dreams are nightmare.” Woojin doesn’t move to lie his head on the pillow. He scoots closer and chooses Jihoon’s lap to rest his head, slowly closing his eyes and takes a deep breath.

 

“Woojin, your pillow is more comfortable than my lap.”

 

“But my pillow doesn’t smell like you.” He muses and Jihoon once again becomes a mess. Woojin always makes him imagining... things. And Jihoon doesn’t like to dream a happy thing alone.

 

“Woojin—“

 

“Can we stay like this? 15 minutes? Please?”

 

Woojin’s eyes open, locks on Jihoon’s widened eyes because of the sudden eye contact. His fingers try to reach Jihoon’s face, caressing it gently with the tip of his fingers.

 

“Let me have a sweet dream,” he murmurs. “Only fifteen minutes out of my whole life.”

 

Jihoon doesn’t understand but he eventually complies.

 

 

*

 

Catching feelings with your closest friend means you have no one to share your feeling with. Jihoon has been keeping it by himself, running to the rooftop and screaming at the top of his lung everytime he feels suffocated by the overwhelming feelings he gets. Woojin is still confusing, at least for Jihoon. One day he’s so shy and timid, another day he’s so confident and Jihoon is flustered.

 

The worst of all is how Jihoon can’t see what’s going on with Woojin. Everytime Jihoon peeks on his feeling, it doesn’t give him a clear answer. A range of colors manifest from him prettily and that makes Jihoon frustrated the most. Despite his attempt to be fully concentrated, Woojin is still unreadable for him.

 

So Jihoon gives up. Not on his feeling for Woojin, but for trying to be strong and frustrated alone. He tries to open up to someone, hoping he’d get enlightened by having someone to support him.

 

His safest bet is Daehwi. The now blackhaired boy comes to his room when Woojin has left one day. Jihoon thinks Daehwi is the safest secret keeper since his potential as the living lie detector turns out making him as the best liar in the whole world. No lie detector works against another lie detector, the initial medical check-up shows that his heart always beats steadily and never changes its pace despite anything he does: not even when he’s startled or doing sports.

 

Jihoon concludes if anyone is smart enough to figure out about his hidden feeling towards Woojin and asks Daehwi, the latter can lie effortlessly. Jihoon makes sure Daehwi won’t betray him by letting him know that Jihoon sees his feeling for Jinyoung and know really well that Daehwi is, for some reasons, frustrated.

 

“I confessed,” Daehwi admits, much to Jihoon surprise. “but he doesn’t say anything. No rejection or acceptance. He simply acts like nothing ever happened.”

 

“O... kay.” Jihoon doesn’t know how to respond, not expecting Daehwi to be this honest.

 

“At least he doesn’t stay away,” Daehwi turns at Jihoon and flashes a wide grin. “Even though he disregards my feeling, I’m okay. At least he doesn’t go anywhere. He stays, and that’s the only thing matters for me.”

 

Jihoon stays quiet and listens to every word Daehwi says. He looks at Daehwi’s wide grin and how his eyes twinkle when he talks about Jinyoung as if that’s really okay.

 

But Jihoon sees blue. Starting lightly and becomes darker, and darker, and darker—until the blue itself seeps through Daehwi and comes to him. He feels blue, deep inside him and it’s really saddening.

 

“Maybe Jinyoung doesn’t swing that way.” Daehwi muses.

 

“He swings that way.” Jihoon sighs. “He liked me before for a while before giving up because I keep telling him that I like someone else.”

 

“Oh.” The blue now fades and slowly changes into green.

 

“Daehwi, you look like a green ogre.” Jihoon chuckles. “Don’t be jealous. It’s just momentary because we only had each other at that time. He doesn’t even turn pinkish anymore when he looks at me.”

 

The green slowly fades away and turns into another color by the time Daehwi laughs to hide his embarassment.

 

“But he does when he’s with you.” Jihoon pats the the younger’s back and the color changes again: hope. Jihoon sees a glint of hope in both Daehwi’s eyes and the color that manifest from him.

 

“He doesn’t show me.” Daehwi huffs. Jihoon can see the frustrating color from him. “I wish he would stop shutting me out.”

 

“There’s something about commitment that scares Jinyoung,” Jihoon remembers something about his friend’s story. “I won’t tell you because that’s rude but I hope it helps?”

 

“It helps.” Daehwi smiles. “Your words are pretty much assuring. Now I know I still have a tiiiny hope so I won’t give up for now.”

 

“Glad to hear that.” Jihoon feels equally happy when he knows he can be helpful for the younger.

 

“Enough about me!” Daehwi claps once and inches closer to Jihoon. His eyes filled with curiousity and there is a playful smirk in his lips. “Your turn. What’s with you and Woojin?”

 

Jihoon knows Daehwi is smart and very sensitive so knowing the younger can sense something happens between them (although Jihoon is quite sure he’s very obvious about his feeling). That’s how Jihoon ends up telling him everything he feels, except the part where he can see a lot of colors in Woojin unlike how he sees anyone else. He decides to tell Daehwithat he can’t sense one strong emotion from Woojin because his own feelings makes it hard for him to focus around Woojin. Jihoon doesn’t need to worry if Daehwi sees the lie in him because Jihoon learns Daehwi can’t see the lie if they word it carefully. In Jihoon’s case, he doesn’t lie when he says his feelings make him hard to focus AND he truly suspects the range of colors in Woojin happens because of his own feelings.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to confront him to ask whether he likes you or not? That’s the shortest way and I can guarantee the success rate is nearly 100%?”

 

“No, Daehwi. Really.” Jihoon shakes his head. “It’s just unfair.”

 

“Whatever.” Daehwi snorts. “He rarely tells lie. Except that time when he told us he’s fine and still energized as ever after pulling all nighter to study this and that.” Daehwi tries to recall the memory. “He’s exhausted. Very.”

 

“I know,” Jihoon mumbles. “He looks pale and about to faint in any sec—eh?”

 

The sudden power blackout interrupst their conversation. Daehwi shrieks because he’s surprised when the room suddenly turns dark and Jihoon gets up to open the curtain, hoping the moonlight will make the room turn slightly brighter. But what Jihoon (and Daehwi) don’t expect is the sudden brightness come from outside.

 

“A bonfire?” Jihoon sees fire in the field accross the dorm. Daehwi also gets up to see what Jihoon just saw and frowns when he sees a lot of people are circling around the fire while holding something they suspect as baseball bat.

 

They haven’t finished thinking about what is possibly happening at that time when suddenly the loud bang followed by Kuanlin’s voice can be heard from the door. They run to the door and open it, showing the panicked Kuanlin who suddenly grabs both of their hands and runs to the emergency stairs.

 

“Wait, what happen?” Daehwi protests. He never likes sports so being forced to run in the middle of night is something he dislikes.

 

“A reformation? Coup d'état? I don’t know the name!” Kuanlin frees their hand and opens the door to emergency stairs. He lets the other two enter it first then follow after, taking out a key out of his pocket and lock the door.

 

“Wait, tell us briefly so we know what are we gonna do.” Jihoon stops Kuanlin from dragging him again. Despite running out of time, Kuanlin huffs in annoyance but proceed to explain what is happening to them.

 

Turns out there is a guerilla in the instituition, hoping to overthrown the current system in order to make it a better place. Those people are suspected to hate the special class system and want to do something to get rid of them. Kuanlin was on his way to the dorm from the gym when he saw some people talking about their plan and ran as fast as he could to the dorm.

 

“Where did you get the key?” Daehwi can’t help but asking.

 

“Seongwoo.” Kuanlin gestures both of them to continue walking upstairs. “Since he never sleeps, he roams a lot when majority of us are asleep. He has the key to all rooms in the institution except to the office. I met him in the lobby and told him what I heard so he gave me the key and told me to tell whoever here to evacuate to the rooftop.”

 

“And where is he?” Jihoon asks. The owner of the key is nowhere to be found while outside there, a lot of people want to do something scary to them.

 

“He runs to the main building,” Kuanlin opens stops to lock another door near him. “Jaehwan is in the music room. Woojin must be practicing or studying in the glass booth. Sungwoon in the gym, but I have contacted him and he must be safely hiding now if he can’t find anyone. I’m not sure about the rest but Seongwoo, Sungwoon, and I are spreading to let all of us now.”

 

There is a loud explosion from the lobby, making three of them flinch and stop running. Some people start screaming—probably the staffs who stay there or whoever unlucky enough to be there while they’re in danger. Jihoon checks his phone, mumbling a low ‘shit’ when he reads the message on his screen.

 

“Minhyun said they’re moving already.” Kuanlin bites his lower lips. “This is not good.”

 

Daehwi, the only one without phone starts biting his lips anxiously. A few minutes ago they’re talking about silly matters and look at them now.

 

Minhyun sends another message to the group chat, asking them to tell about their whereabouts and briefly explaining about their current condition. Jihoon replies, telling him he’s with Daehwi and Kuanlin in the fifth floor, ready to go to the rooftop. Minhyun replies to tell them to keep moving while him and Jaehwan try to move secretly and find a way to rescue them.

 

Jihoon waits anxiously for Woojin’s reply. Much to his dismay, the one he expects hasn’t replied anything and probably is the one who hasn’t read the chat, since there are eight person who already read the message (and Daehwi doesn’t bring his phone).

 

Jihoon types.

 

‘Woojin?’

 

And no one replies.

 

*

 

When they finally reaches the rooftop, they’ve no idea that they’d be the only one there.

 

“Hello, special snowflakes.”

 

A masked man, greeting three of them while playing with a baseball bat in his hand. Jihoon can hear Kuanlin mumbles something about forgetting the door to outside ladder and Jihoon just sighs. Kuanlin is clumsy, and his clumsiness is still there even when they’re in danger like this.

 

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

 

“We don’t.” Jihoon might look soft. With sweater paw in neon colors, bamby eyes, soft hair, and anything, people would easily mistaken him as someone weak. But Jihoon, albeit not having a blackbelt or something similar to that, is fearless. He might not be the strongest but he’s okay with fighting if it’s necessary.

 

Jihoon’s word changes the atmosphere there. Everyone suddenly looks tense, especially the masked man. He suddenly stops playing with the bat and looks at him with anger in his eyes.

 

“You do realize there are only three of you and more of us, right?”

 

“We do.” Jihoon shrugs. “What are you gonna do? Beating us until we die? If that’s what happen, whether you can overthrown the current system, you’ll never be able to enjoy your hardwork.”

 

“Golden ticket straight to the jail.” Daehwi supplies. Kuanlin just nodded, too afraid to say something so he chooses too observe the situation.

 

“You have guts.” The laugh of masked man makes Jihoon feels sick. Instinctively, he tries to put both of the youngest behind him and glares at seven people in front of them—telling them to back off and don’t ever touch them.

 

“We won’t kill you, don’t worry.” He barks an annoying laugh. “We just want to give you a little lesson then makes sure you guys aren’t be able to enjoy the privilege of being top students in the institution.”

 

Daehwi frowns when he sees something in the masked man. He inches closer to Jihoon, tries to act as normal as possible and whispers quietly, hoping it’s only Jihoon who can hear it.

 

“He’s lying.”

 

Jihoon is tensed upon hearing Daehwi’s word. By lying, he assumes the masked man wants to do something even more terrible to them and Jihoon doesn’t want to assume whatever is that.

 

“Give us the badge.” The masked man says. The badge is something only special students have, a sign of how special they are and also used as a key to some room by tapping it.

 

“No.” Jihoon adamantly refuses to give up their badges—their identity. “We won’t give our treasure to the thug who doesn’t even deserve it.”

 

Anger is the fastest way to weaken the enemy, that’s what Jihoon learns after all this time. He hopes by provoking the masked man, he can find a way to fight them with less injury since they’re obviously outnumbered by them.

 

Unfortunately, the man just laughs. He laughs and laughs, not showing any sign of offended by Jihoon’s words. It makes Jihoon flustered, because he doesn’t expect the enemy to be someone cold-headed.

 

“We have to go back and lock ourself in the stair.” Kuanlin whispers. “Let’s back off slowly or else we only have to prolong this and wait until the other comes.”

 

“We need Jaehwan. Or Sungwoon.” Daehwi adds. “It’s a piece of cake for them.”

 

Jihoon stays quiet.

 

“Daehwi, Kuanlin,” Jihoon tells them. “When I say ‘go’, run. Hide there and try to contact them.”

 

“What about you?”

 

Jihoon takes off his glasses and hands it to the youngest. He offers a sweet smile and simple ‘don’t worry’ to them. Jihoon also tells them to keep it safely because that’s his favorite.

 

“What are you guys doing?” The masked man looks annoyed because three of them are busy whispering with each other. One of them approaches them, swinging the bat playfully in order to scare them but ends up falling down in the floor—trembling—when Jihoon looks at him.

 

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY FRIEND!”

 

“Go!” Jihoon yells and the other two pulls the door and slams it shut. There’s a click sound behind the door, a sign that they finally manage to lock the door and Jihoon starts to move around a lot to focus on each of them while try his best to avoid the attack. Everytime one of them locks eyes with Jihoon, they always end up trembling on the ground.

 

 _Three_.

 

There are still four of them with different colors try to attack Jihoon while the other three on the ground are trembling with purple radiates from them. Jihoon manages to play with their emotion, an upgrade of his potential that isn’t allowed to be used by the teacher because it exhausts him and puts him in danger. Jihoon can feel it already, like how his eyes are blurry and the dizziness starts to come.

 

The fourth one collapses not because of Jihoon’s potential. Jihoon just kicked him hard in the crotch and gives a following kick to the shin—making the victim screams in pain.

 

Four down, three more to go.

 

In the middle of his blurry vision and weakenened body, Jihoon thinks hard about the leader. Strangely, the masked man who keeps confronting him with his laugh doesn’t make any move and just watch him defeat his members one by one. Jihoon starts to create possibilites of why the masked man stays quiet in the middle of mess he makes.

 

Jihoon gets an answer when the sixth man down and it’s only the masked man he needs to defeat.

 

Jihoon is about to faint. So he uses his left energy to focus on the masked man and plays with his emotion. Jihoon tries to send ‘fear’ to him but nothing happens despite his best attempt.

 

Jihoon starts to lose consciousness. The man’s laughter is vague and he can’t do anything when his legs give up. Jihoon falls to the floor with cold sweat and he feels like suffering a terrible headache. The man approach him, grabs his collar and forces Jihoon to get up, but Jihoon is half-dying he doesn’t even have energy left to stop him snatching his badge.

 

“You are not special in front of me,” the man wraps his hand in Jihoon’s neck and makes Jihoon coughs. “Your specialty turns into nothing with my nullification ability.”

 

Jihoon gasps, for air and also because of the information he just heard. He heard about the nullification ability once but he thought it’s just a rumor because no one has encountered something like that before. Who knows tonight, when he’s about to die, he can meet one?

 

“Killing me won’t give you anything.” Jihoon tries to speak albeit hard. He tries to fight back by pulling the man’s hand but the grip is too tight and Jihoon has no energy. He tries to kick but the man is quick enough to avoid it and send a kick to Jihoon instead, making him fall to the floor while clutch his stomach.

 

“I only need satisfaction.” The man replies. “And killing you gives me so much satisfaction.”

 

The man put the badge he snatched on Jihoon’s leg, smiling like a crazy while lifting one of his leg.

 

“Ever thought of losing both your badge and one of your leg, Jihoon?”

 

Jihoon closes his eyes, too tired to argue and too hurt to defend himself. He just waits the pain to come and hope it’d be bearable because he never knows how does it feel to fracture the bone. What the masked man going to do is pretty clear, and Jihoon is ready to welcome whatever it is.

 

Except the pain never comes.

 

In the middle of his come-and-go consciousness, Jihoon hears a loud scream from the masked man and his body is enveloped in familiar warmth. He can smell faint parfume of Jinyoung and also hear Daehwi’s panic voice near him. Both of them try to lift him and move him somewhere safe. The masked man continously yelps in pain and he can hear Minhyun’s voice telling Woojin to stop.

 

‘Woojin?’

 

Jihoon opens his eyes. It’s still blurry but he can see Woojin’s figure holding a chair above his head and someone lying down below, begging him to spare him life. He wants to say something but he slowly slips into unconsciousness, right before Minhyun and Seongwoo manage to stop Woojin from smashing the chair to the masked man.

 

Aside from that, Jihoon gets to see something he never sees before: one color only, radiates strongly from Woojin.

 

Black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
